Philadelphia, PA— Reinvestment Fund today announced $3 million in financial assistance awards to 14 food retail and food retail supply chain projects across 14 states through America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Food Access and Retail Expansion (FARE) Fund.
The HFFI FARE Fund investment is part of the ongoing national HFFI program, which addresses the complexity of food access in communities across America. The purpose of America’s HFFI is to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, support food supply chain resiliency, create and preserve quality jobs, and revitalize low-income communities.
Over the next five years, the HFFI FARE Fund will provide a total of $60 million in loans, grants, and technical assistance for the predevelopment, planning, and implementation of eligible projects aiming to increase, strengthen, expand, and innovate within the food retail supply chain. As a result of funding allocated by Congress in the American Rescue Plan Act, the HFFI FARE Fund is available for rural and urban communities.
HFFI FARE Fund funding will be distributed as grants, loans, and technical assistance. Grants and loans will assist projects with a variety of aspects related to project development, renovation, and/or expansion. Technical Assistance provided by HFFI FARE Fund will support capacity building for early-stage projects to develop a sustainable food retail or food supply chain business model.
“America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) continues to expand and support local solutions that provide access to healthy food,” said Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO of Reinvestment Fund. “With its expansion over the next five years, we can deepen our impact; strengthening local economies and community infrastructure.”
The 14 awardees for round 1 of 2024-2025 HFFI FARE Fund were selected through a competitive process. There were 145 applications received requesting over $41 million in funding. The portfolio of round 1 FARE Fund awards represents a variety of food retail and food supply chain business models that will serve areas that lack access to food retailers, which includes USDA designated Low-Income, Low-Supermarket Access census tracts across 14 states. 50 percent of projects are located in Rural Areas and 29 percent of projects serve Very Low-Income Areas. 93 percent of projects will involve food retail businesses and 50 percent of projects will involve food retail supply chain businesses. Awardees include:
-Holliday Helping Hands will use grant funds to expand Freshly’s Market, a full-service grocery store, to a second location in Smithville, MS.
-Makoce Agricultural Development will use grant funds for the development of the Makoce Food Hub supporting middle-of-the-food-supply chain activities, including storage, aggregation, distribution, and retail serving members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
-Lewiston-Auburn Community Market will use grant funds for the development of the Lewiston-Auburn Community Market, a multi-stakeholder cooperative business that will include grocery retail, a food court, shared cold and dry storage, and a shared commercial kitchen located in Lewiston,
-Spokane Conservation District will use grant funds for the development of the Scale House Market and Kitchen, a year-round permanent farmers market, mercantile, and commercial kitchen uplifting socially disadvantaged rural farmers in Spokane, WA.
The complete list of funded HFFI FARE Fund projects will be available at www.investinginfood.com.
The HFFI FARE Fund is currently accepting Funding Inquiries. To apply for an implementation grant, please submit a Funding Inquiry form by August 18th. Applications for loans and technical assistance are accepted on a rolling basis. For more information, please visit www.investinginfood.com/fare-fund/.
As the National Fund Manager, Reinvestment Fund administers the HFFI program on behalf of USDA. The public-private partnership aims to provide capacity building and financing resources to stimulate food business development at scale and build a more equitable food system that supports the health and economic vibrancy of all Americans. Beginning with the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI) in 2004, we have developed a comprehensive and evidence-based approach to improving the food landscape for low-income people. Since that time, we have provided more than $371 million in grants and loans to healthy food projects.
Media Contact: media@reinvestment.com
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About Reinvestment Fund
Reinvestment Fund is a mission-driven financial institution committed to making communities work for all people. We bring financial and analytical tools to partnerships that work to ensure that people in communities across the country have the opportunities they strive for: affordable places to live, access to nutritious food and health care, schools where their children can flourish, and strong, local businesses that support jobs. We use data to understand markets and how transactions can have the most powerful impact, which has consistently earned us the top Aeris rating of AAA for financial strength and four stars for impact management. Our asset and risk management systems have also earned us an AA- rating from S&P. Since our inception in 1985, Reinvestment Fund has provided over $3.2 billion in financing to strengthen neighborhoods, scale social enterprises, and build resilient communities. Learn more at reinvestment.com.